Postgame Quotes - April 11, 2014

Pistons at Bulls

(What changed with the Bulls’ shooting from the first half?)
“They are a good team. We talked to our guys at halftime, we have been there with a bigger lead than 18. We knew they were going to pick up their intensity on both sides of the floor. You have to be a little stronger with the ball and not give them second chances. You have to fight them to the bitter end. They ratcheted it up a couple of notches. We held on in the third quarter and the first couple minutes of the fourth quarter. I didn’t like our offense and the separation was not there. They are a good team. You have to play 48 minutes.”

(On Andre Drummond:)
“He competes. Also give Greg Monroe a lot of credit. He had Noah on him the entire night and made some great passes and very unselfish. They didn’t get frustrated. I’ll take both of our bigs efforts tonight. They complement each other very well. They gave us everything they had.”

(On the play of Peyton Siva:)
“Peyton is doing what Peyton does. He runs the team very well for us and made some big shots. He is learning every game. It’s kind of been trial by error and he’s gone out there and competed and give us a chance to win the game.”

(Taj Gibson has had some nice games against the Pistons:)
“He’s had nice games against a lot of teams in the league. Check the record, the Bulls are a pretty good team. It’s not just us. We played him just about as well as anybody in the league. He’s an active guy. He finishes every game for them. Like we talk about to our team, with Augustine and Gibson it’s like playing against seven starters. Those two guys, Augustine is their leading scorer and Taj Gibson is as athletic and active as any power forward in the league. They do it against a lot of people.”

(What changed from the first three quarters to the fourth quarter?)
“I think they just know how to win. They make plays and they turned us over. They just fed off the energy of the crowd. “

(On the Bulls organization and being able to win games like this:)
“Even without Derrick Rose, they are a solid team from top to bottom. They have guys who want to play hard and want to win. With that kind of recipe, you know how things will turn out.”

(On tonight’s rebounding:)
“That was a concern right from the start. Drummond dominated right at the beginning of the game. I thought we were real low energy at the start. Badly out rebounding, not making transition plays, not running back on defense. That is not us. We are not a low energy team. We usually have great energy. I thought we made a big switch in terms of intensity. I thought particularly in the 4th we were good at stepping up.”

(On Taj’s blocks:)
“When you make effort plays like that, and those were big time multiple effort plays. Block shots, offensive rebounding in traffic, finishing; that does nothing but inspire your team. That sort of ignited us. DJ got going. Mike had a great stretch in the 2nd half. The 3rd quarter, we got moving in the right direction once we got it under 10. Carlos was very good at scoring early on. Joe started slowly and finished strongly. You have to win games differently. Obviously the rebounding and defense wasn’t here, but I thought the offense was. We found a way to win and that is the most important things.”

(On DJ’s scoring: )
“Our 2 most efficient scores are DJ and Taj. That leads to a lot of things. DJ has the ability to make people better. Kirk was very good with his aggressiveness on the ball. Jimmy started slowly and kept working the game. He made big plays for us down the stretch. We have to be ready to keep going. The most important thing is to find a way to win.”

(Now at the 3rd seed, does your strategy change at all?)
“No. I don’t want it to. The big thing is to concentrate on improvement and get ready. If you go step by step, everything takes care of itself. We can’t look ahead at other things and get distracted. I think we have a good understanding of what goes into winning and if you keep your eyes on that and know your opponent well, put in the necessary work into winning, the results will be good.”

(On the game:)
“Just a tale of halves. Sometimes that is the NBA. They jumped on us early, hit some shots. We missed some shots. In the 2nd half I thought our intensity was way way better. We fought back in the 3rd quarter, and in the 4th quarter we were even better. Give them credit for the 1st half, give us credit for the 2nd half.”

(Was it just the intensity?)
“It was a combination of a number of things. That is the NBA though. They jumped on us, but we came into the locker room (at half time) and said ‘let’s pick it up. Pick up our intensity, play a little better.’ Slowly but surely we crept back into it, crept back into it. In the 4th quarter we got the lead, and ran away from it there.”